Russia’s deployment of North Korean troops in the Ukraine war is a “grave escalation”, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is learnt to have told Russian President Vladimir Putin in a phone call on November 15, as reported by the BBC. This was the first phone conversation between the leaders in close to two years.
News of North Korean boots on the Russia-Ukraine war ground had first emerged last month. While the West had reacted with outrage, cooperation between the two Communist nations has been consistent and long-standing, with Russia, and before that the Soviet Union, helping its smaller neighbour ever since the latter came into being.
Military collaboration between the two is not new either — during the Korean War (1950-1953), the Soviet Union and China had backed North Korea.
Here’s a brief history of their ties.
The two Koreas
Soviet troops invaded the Japanese colony of Korea in 1945 during World War II, followed by liberation of the Korean Peninsula from Japanese occupation. After the Allies’ victory, the peninsula was divided along the 38th parallel (the 38° N latitude), with the Soviet Union in charge of the northern part and the United States in charge of the south.
This split-up was supposed to be temporary, but with the beginning of the Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union, the divide only deepened, and soon, the two rival nations of North and South Korea came into being, one under the Soviet sphere of influence, and the other under the USA’s.
The ‘eternal President’, and an enduring bond
In the history of North Korea and in its ties with Russia, the figure of Kim Il Sung looms large.
Kim Il Sung founded the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), also known as North Korea, in 1948, and served as its leader till his death in 1994. After his son, Kim Jong Il (father of the current leader, Kim Jong Un), took over, Kim Il Sung was declared the ‘eternal President’.
Research indicates that Kim Il Sung grew up in the undivided Korean Peninsula under Japanese occupation, and his family were involved in revolutionary activities against colonial oppression, although specific details are hard to find.
Kim Il Sung spent a significant part of his early years between China and what is now North Korea, as his family relocated back and forth. While enrolled as a student in Jilin Yuwen High School in 1930, in China’s Jilin city close to the China-North Korea border, Kim Il Sung developed an interest in Communism and joined guerilla groups fighting the Japanese colonial government. Over the next decade, Kim Il Sung joined the Chinese Communist Party and climbed the ranks, engaged in armed retaliation against Japanese forces.
An undated photo of North Koreans seated, with portraits of Kim Il Sung (leader of North Korea), Joseph Stalin (Soviet Union) and Mao Zedong (China). Photo credit: DRPK archives.
Sometime in 1940, several of these guerrilla groups went to the Soviet Union, including the one to which Kim Il Sung belonged. Here, he was noticed by officials in the Soviet Red Army and recruited for garrison duties in the Soviet Far East. In 1945, following the division of Korea, he returned in Soviet army uniform with many of his former guerrilla colleagues and a number of Soviet Koreans, according to the Wilson Center’s digital archive.
There has been some research that indicates that Kim Il Sung was not a particularly remarkable soldier or possessed any specific qualities that resulted in his subsequent appointment as the leader of North Korea. But what is known is that Lavrentiy Beria, one of Joseph Stalin’s most powerful police chiefs who served as the head of the Soviet Union’s People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD) from 1938 to 1946, recommended Kim Il Sung’s name as the potential leader of Soviet-occupied territories.
In December 1945, Kim Il Sung was appointed the first secretary of the North Korean Branch Bureau of the Communist Party of Korea. By the time the two Koreas were established as separate states in 1948, Kim Il Sung had become a strong political figure.
Decades of cooperation
During the Korean War, the Soviet Union and China supported North Korea, with the US and its Western allies, including the United Nations Command, backing the South. India played a leading role in ending this war, and the UN accepted New Delhi’s armistice proposal in 1953.
In 1961, the DPRK and the Soviet Union signed a Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance. Since then, the Soviet Union remained supportive of North Korea, emerging as the main trading and economic partner and contributing to the smaller country’s industrial development. Over the past years, Russia has provided much-needed exports of petroleum, food, and other products to North Korea.
During the famines of the 1990s, it provided several billion rubles worth of aid in the form of food and necessary supplies.
In fact, for much of its modern history, North Korea has relied on Russia’s support and humanitarian assistance, including to help it cope during natural disasters.
Defence relations between the two countries have also been steady, despite UN sanctions on North Korea after Pyongyang conducted its first nuclear test in 2006.
After the Russia-Ukraine war broke out in 2022, the Western military intelligence community believes that North Korea has offered assistance in the form of arms shipment, including artillery shells and rockets, to Russia.
Deepening their cooperation, Putin recently signed into law a treaty on the country’s strategic partnership with North Korea, according to a decree published on November 10. According to a Reuters report, the accord, signed by Putin and Kim Jong Un in June after a summit in Pyongyang, calls on each side to come to the other’s aid in case of an armed attack. The treaty was ratified by Russia’s upper house this week, while the lower house endorsed it last month.
Kim Jong Un and Vladimir Putin after signing a comprehensive strategic partnership in Pyongyang in June. (Photo: AP) 
An undated photo of North Koreans seated, with portraits of Kim Il Sung (leader of North Korea), Joseph Stalin (Soviet Union) and Mao Zedong (China). Photo credit: DRPK archives.
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